Dizzying

Is the problem here the race gap, or is it underfunded rural white schools?

Because, while it’s technically possible for both to be problems in the same space at the same time, it’s rather difficult to reconcile the two.

Also remember that one of the historical reasons why rural white districts are underfunded is because the “urban” (full of yoots) districts and their “unique needs” wind up crowding out a good chunk of state money. Remember, the state spent quite a bit on both St. Louis’s inter-district deseg program (“VICC”), and on the Kansas City Experiment.

Back to the point, the race gap in the AP universe persists in spite of the fact that the AP has tried to tweak (dumb down) both its offerings and tests to appeal to blacks (and Hispanics) in recent years. One other point about the race gap is that it lumps whites and Asians into the same “winner” category, when I’d be more interested in the Asian-white gap.

Then there’s this at the end:

Missouri education officials also stress that some students prefer to take dual credit courses, which are college courses that high school students can enroll in through a partnership between a college and a public school system, rather than take AP exams. Others may enroll at a local college while still in high school. Some schools allow students to receive dual credit through an AP course.

Unlike AP, dual credit and dual enrollment guarantee students that they will earn college credit if they pass the courses. However, dual credit and dual enrollment only apply to Missouri colleges. Last year, 415 districts and charter schools with high schools offered dual credit; about 140 offered dual enrollment.

The reason “dual credit” classes “guarantee” college credit is because the colleges get paid off the scheme. For the most part, colleges won’t accept AP as credit any longer, because doing so would be a means of accumulating credits without the colleges getting paid. (Occam’s Razor, Generation X Edition). Because of credential creep, and all the things that have led up to it and are driving it, cough cough, affirmative action, cough cough, the disparate impact of various Federal court decisions, cough cough, the Democrat Party and the education-industrial complex being one and the same, the goal that most students have when it comes to tertiary education is the piece of paper. The option that helps them get that piece of paper faster or easier will be more popular than the one that doesn’t.